For Immediate Release: Wednesday, April 3, 2024
Contact: [emailprotected]
Reproductive Freedom For All California Announces 2024 Bill Package
Sacramento, CA — Today, Reproductive Freedom For All California announced its 2024 bill package, which focuses on increasing access to reproductive health care—including abortion care—across the state. While California has strong legal protections for reproductive rights, significant parts of the state remain reproductive health access deserts, a problem that has been exacerbated by recent and accelerating closures of labor and delivery wards and difficulty opening clinics. Additionally, access to quality unbiased care continues to be inequitable, with Black women making up 5% of pregnant patients but accounting for 21% of pregnancy-related deaths in the state.
Reproductive Freedom For All California is excited to announce our 2024 Access Bill Package, which includes five bills that we are cosponsoring to expand access to abortion, labor and delivery care, and more, including:
- (AB 1895): Keeping labor and delivery wards open
- (AB 2085): Streamlining the process for reproductive health clinics to open
- (AB 2319): Strengthening implicit bias training to expand access to unbiased care and reduce CA’s high rates of Black maternal mortality
- (AB 2490): Expanding access to treatment for pregnancy loss and miscarriage and abortion care at emergency departments across the state
- (SB 729): Expanding access to fertility and infertility care, including IVF
Reproductive Freedom For All California Director Shannon Olivieri Hovis released the following statement:
“This bill package continues to define what it means to be a Reproductive Freedom State—creating a bold blueprint for the country. While we still have work to do, Reproductive Freedom For All California is thrilled to sponsor these bills that will increase access for people seeking abortion and reproductive health care statewide. We look forward to the continued collaboration with Governor Newsom and our champions in the legislature to get these bills passed and signed into law.”
Additional background on Reproductive Freedom For All California’s 2024 sponsored bills:
- Assembly Bill 1895 authored by Assemblymember Akilah Weber protects access to labor and delivery care, seeking to stem the tide of hospitals closing their labor and delivery wards by requiring community impact assessments and the opportunity for public input prior to any closure.
- Assembly Bill 2085 authored by Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan expands access to reproductive health care by streamlining the process for reproductive health clinics to open in California.
- Assembly Bill 2319 authored by Assemblymember Lori Wilson aims to reduce the maternal mortality rate among Black women and pregnant people by ensuring the successful implementation of the California Dignity in Pregnancy and Childbirth Act of 2019 (which Repro for All CA sponsored) and strengthening implicit bias training.
- Assembly Bill 2490 authored by Assemblymember Cottie Petrie-Norris establishes the Reproductive Health Emergency Preparedness Program (RHEPP) to expand access to reproductive health care – including treatment of pregnancy loss and miscarriage, and abortion – in Emergency Departments across California.
- Senate Bill 729 authored by Senator Caroline Menjivar requires large group health plans to provide coverage for fertility care, including treatment for infertility and in vitro fertilization (IVF), and ensure that LGBTQ+ couples are not unfairly excluded from coverage. (2-year bill)
###
For over 50 years, Reproductive Freedom for All (formerly NARAL Pro-Choice America) has fought to protect and advance reproductive freedom at the federal and state levels—including access to abortion care, birth control, pregnancy and post-partum care, and paid family leave—for everybody. Reproductive Freedom for All is powered by its more than 4 million members from every state and congressional district in the country, representing the 8 in 10 Americans who support legal abortion.
